Jabrai Jordan Copney, 22, was essentially living at Harvard with his girlfriend, who was a student, when he masterminded a plot to rob Justin Cosby at gunpoint of money and marijuana inside Kirkland House in May 18, 2009. When Cosby refused to comply with the robbers, Copney fatally shot him, according to Middlesex prosecutors.
A jury of three men and nine women returned their guilty verdict shortly after noon today. Judge John Lu sentenced Copney after a brief sentencing hearing. Life without parole is the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder.
Copney's mother, Yvette, broke down and wept after the verdict was announced. Denise Cosby, the victim's mother, who attended with about a half dozen friends and relatives, was quietly exultant.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.’s office had singled out Copney as the person most responsible for the slaying.
Key evidence came from Copney’s former friend, Blayn Jiggetts, who plead guilty to manslaughter in return for taking the stand as a prosecution witness.
Jiggetts identified Copney as Cosby’s killer. At the same time, Jiggetts acknowledged that he had brought the 9mm handgun from New York City that was used in the murder. He faces less than 20 years in prison.
Earlier this year, Jason Aquino, 21, of New York pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting he participated in the shooting. Aquino also pleaded guilty to armed robbery and misleading a Middlesex grand jury. Under a deal with prosecutors, he will serve 18 to 20 years in prison on all three charges.
The verdict leaves one person still facing prosecution for playing a role in Cosby’s death – Copney’s girlfriend, Brittany Smith, who was a Harvard senior just one week from graduation when Cosby was shot.
Smith, who has not been allowed by the Cambridge school to formally graduate, allegedly knew about the robbery plot in advance but did nothing to stop it even after she saw Jiggetts load the firearm in her room, prosecutors alleges.
After the shooting, she also allegedly took the murder weapon from Copney and stashed it in a friend’s room at the Lowell House residence hall, where it was found hours later by police.
Smith, a New York City resident, has pleaded not guilty to charges of illegal possession of a firearm, accessory after the fact to murder, willfully misleading a grand jury, and willfully misleading a police officer.
Another Harvard student implicated in the case, Chanequa Campbell, testified against Copney and is not facing criminal charges. Campbell, who is also from New York, was a senior and has also been barred from graduation.
The guilty verdict came after Copney’s defense attorney, John Amabile, told the jury in his closing argument on Wednesday that his client was “totally innocent.”
Daniel Bennett, an assistant Middlesex district attorney, told the jury, “Jabrai Copney took away everything that Justin Cosby was. And Jabrai Copney, through his decision, took away everything Justin Cosby might have been.’’
Lessons learned from this story:
Don't set up deals with 5,000 pounds of weed ( especially with someone you don't know)
Never doubt someone especially someone with a gun
Don't do dirt with your friends because 9/10 they will be the ones to turn on you the quickest.
